How To Draw Cartoon Characters Animated Characters

Cartoon characters from the classic Walt Disney movies such as “Snow White And the Seven Dwarves” as well as the more contemporary “Beauty and the Beast” have shaped many generations of children. Sometimes, children aren’t happy with just watching cartoon movies in cinemas, and drawing the characters can become a new hobby. Children are great with their hands at an early age, and the use of various art implements such as pencils and coloring pens can help improve hand-eye coordination. There are plenty of characters that they can choose to sketch and if they can’t draw from memory, there are certainly patterns and guides that you can follow. Cartoon characters are usually easy to draw, because of the simple lines and the pronounced facial and bodily features. Here are the various ways you can draw cartoon characters:

Trace the character. Get your favorite coloring book with cartoon characters and use bond paper or onion skin paper to cover the image. You will still see the image through the paper so it will be quite easy to use a pencil and trace the lines through the paper. Once you have traced all the lines, you can then use a permanent marker to make these heavier. This is great for showing the weight of the outline. You can then proceed to coloring or shading the rest of the picture with the use of colored pens, crayons, pencils or water color.

Freehand. You can also draw cartoon characters using the freehand method. The character usually has three major parts: the head, the torso and the limbs.

The head is usually the largest part of the illustration so make sure that you pay attention to the details. You usually start with a sphere and then sketch cross-section lines as reference points for the eyes, nose and ears, so that these will look balanced, regardless of where the head is facing. Then draw a vertical line down from the head, and this would be the reference point for the torso. You can then use lines that extend outward from the torso to draw the arms and legs.

Details might be more difficult to draw, especially if these are small, like fingers and toes. But with cartoon characters, these usually have stubby, four-fingered hands, and characters usually wear shoes on their feet.

Use any picture of the character as reference and make sure that you use the proportions of the original design as a guide. If you don’t have coloring books to draw inspiration from, you can always download images off the Internet. You may print them to help you visualize the characters better.

Sketching cartoon animated characters can be challenging at first, but if you keep practicing, you will get the figures and proportions just right it. Practice makes perfect and with more illustrations you do, you should be more than able to get much closer to the final product that you want to achieve.